Friday, August 7, 2009

On July 30, 1874, the Diocese of Ottawa held its first pilgrimage to the Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. At that time, the territory of the diocese included the present dioceses of Gatineau, Pembroke and Mont-Laurier and the faithful of these dioceses have since joined in the annual pilgrimage, along with the faithful of the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall (then part of the Kingston diocese).

Mgr Joseph-Eugene Bruno Guigues, the first bishop of Ottawa, who had a great devotion to Saint Anne died several months before the first pilgrimage. Bishop Thomas Duhamel, who had taken part in the first pilgrimage, asked that this act of religious devotion be organized annually and, as archbishop, he personally led the journeys of 1902, 1904, 1905 and 1906.

So, this year will be the 135th Year of what has become the Interdiocesan Pilgrimage of the Archdioceses of Gatineau and Ottawa and the dioceses of Alexandria-Cornwall, Mont-Laurier and Pembroke. The respective bishops rotate leadership of the pilgrimage and this weekend is my first time leading the pilgrims, accompanied by Abbé Daniel Berniquez EV, my Master of Ceremonies.

Ottawa's Michael Budge does much of the planning and coordinating, working with the staffs of the two shrines.

Here is our schedule for this two-day of journey and prayer (other pilgrims will rendez-vous at other locations for departure and return):

2 comments:

I just came back from St. Anne. It was the most Beautiful Church that I have ever seen. Also went to St. Joachim. My Great-Uncle is a Redemptrist Priest at St. Anne de Beaupre and he showed us all around. It was wonderful. What amazed me was seeing all of the Tridentine alters and just sat about what it would be like to have 20 priests saying the Tridentine Rite there at the same time.

As the Principal Organizer for the Annual Pilgrimage from the Archdioceses of Ottawa, Gatineau and Dioceses of Pembroke, Mont-Laurier and Alexandria-Cornwall, and recently joined Archdiocese of Kingston thank Archbishop Terry and Padre Daniel for their extraordinary touch and charisma to the pilgrims on the VIP Bus as well as all the pilgrims from all Dioceses.

The Principal Organizer and Rector's Banquet is a means of gathering all the people invovled in the annual pilgrimage to thank them for non stop devotion to Ste-Anne and Our Mother.

I have a total of 14 representatives within all 5 Dioceses plus the new representative from the Archdiocese of Kingston, Alice Juneau. Welcome Alice.

As I have many missing representatives for Ottawa, Kanata, Gloucester, Nepean, Orleans, Vanier etc I act as the representative. Should anyone be interested in becoming a representative / organizer for your section, you are most welcome - simply drop me a line atmike_budge@sympatico.ca

Again, a big thank you to Archbishop Terry and Father Daniel. You two rocked the place!